State: California (United States)

How to start the human engine and engage others through Natural Management.

I have been a dental hygienist for nearly 20 years but moved to a new area recently. I was subing in an office near my new home and the boss told me there was one day a week open and offered it to me. Yeah, I thought. The doctors like me, the patients are all requesting to see me again and the office staff really get along with. Then out of the blue (2 months into my job) he tells me he has a friend that he wants to help out and that she has been given my job??!!?? Sometimes these dentists just do things we can't understand. But I am still a little bitter about how he gets to play puppetmaster because he said I would still get to sub when their in a bind!!!!

I have worked for the same practice for 4 years. A surgical clinic consisting of 5 surgeons, 2 of whom specialize in vascular surgery - ever since I was hired I have been praised by patients and other staff members alike (albeit only verbally) as the one who got things done, the one to go to for answers, and the one who did his job well. This resulting advice comes from years of very hard work, very long hours, and the painful reality underneath it all.

The other staff members dump (on average) about 70% of their workload onto me whilst they stand around chatting to patients and amongst one another about their personal lives (getting extremely intimate at times about very VERY inappropriate details)

Pay was never based upon skill, work load, work quality, attendance, or any other criteria based in reality - rather; the other staff members, some who had no more than a high school education were ALL paid more than medical assistants and the physicians assistant. Specifically the main receptionist who had no formal education or training was paid almost 3 times my rate of pay for doing what is comparable to shuffling papers on a desk and pretending to work for 7 hours a day, after which time her workload was promptly given to the back office staff (aka yours truly) to preform on top of all other job duties.

The manager (who happens to be the owners significant other) has constantly been of the "we're just in a phase, things will get better" mindset and dismisses my requests for fair pay and my suggestions with a smug passive aggressive attitude something along the lines of a "if I ignore it it'll go away" attitude. The manager would also gladly throw anyone under the bus to save face or avoid her own short-comings whenever possible, commonly resulting in being told to preform a task; when the doctor found out and brought to your attention that what you were doing was against what they wanted the manager would inevitably deny any involvement in telling you to do said task.

The icing on the cake is the legal corner cutting involved; like the employee handbook that specified that employees were not to discuss their pay in OR OUT of the office REGARDLESS of whether you were on work time or not. A clause which (in the state I am in at least) is SPECIFICALLY and COMPLETELY against the law.

When managers are asking you find ways around laws to exploit workers or give someone less money - RUN, and do NOT turn back EVER!

What's the moral of this story? The medical field is not as straight forward as it seems, office politics and personal grudges between doctors affecting the lives of sick people is not pretty, why should you get stiffed and have to deal with that and not be able to do anything about it?

Get it in writing and keep a paper trail and a log of anything that you may need to back you up.

Grieving a termination for alleged misconduct is tough because the union (CWA) seems to be in the company's pocket. Time is precious, with the current state of our US economy and having now waited 14 months since being fired for this "process" to see its way through...all one can do is thank God for unemployment insurance and continue to wait for the answer to my appeal from the national executive committee members. Keeping a positive attitude helps, and it doesn't hurt knowing that you are in the right and have been, to put it simply: "WRONGFULLY TERMINATED". I'm sticking it out to the end - they say "time waits for no one" and I am not getting any younger telling you all this so, with that - here's to you and to me and trusting that in the end.... Right Always Wins.

Do your job, focus on your career. If you have been in a job for 3 or more years, it has become your career. Want a different career? You must make choices to spend time and money to progress. Wishing, hoping, talking, thinking are not achieving any goals. Get educated. Volunteer. Do more with less. Always be improving. Be self-motivated. Bring something positive to work everyday if only a smile.

All flooring installers need to come together on a fair wage increase. Many of us have not seen an increase in pay in over 20 years and in some cases have taken a cut in pay. We recieve no benifits, no paid holidays. If we don't work we don't get paid. Most of us have to buy our supplies and recieve no reimbursment and I'm sure you all have noticed that the price of gas and vehical matainence, materials, tools, and the cost of living has more than tripled since many of you started in this trade. All involved in the business end of the trade have raised their fees to help cover rising costs: deliveries, the price of padding, carpet, etc.. The company you work for raises its price accordingly to stay in business but what about the people who actually do the job? Nothing. Not a penny increase in 20 years and in many cases are getting less for doing even more like vaccuming, now considered to be part of the installation, moving furniture for an extra $.50 a yard. That's only $50.00 per 100 yards the size of an average 3 bedroom house. That's quite a bit of furniture to move and be responsible for an extra $50.00 not to mention the extra time on the clock and we don't get paid by the hour. It just seems to me that we are paid like laborers that don't have to think just work. But the reality is that we have to get the material to the job, figure out how to make it work, then put it in according to specs, own the tools and have the know how and skills needed to do it and all in a timely fashion or we wouldn't even make minimum wage. So people please hear me if we all demand an increase we will get it but we all need to stick together and be firm or it won't work and we will start getting less than $3.00 dollars a yard for berber like many of us do now. Which, I started laying carpet 25 years ago was the standard rate and was increased to $4.00, then $5.00 less than ten years later. Now I'm lucky to get $2.85 a yard. What happened to change the pay scale? an endless supply of foreign workers that are willing to let the shop owners take advantage of them or convince them that they will get more big jobs for taking less money which in many cases seems to be true but they fail to realize they are cheating themselves as well as all in the trade because the work needs to be done and if they would stand their ground and demand the same wage they will get it. So please all installers start talking to your co-workers about demanding a raise it is way overdue and we deserve it and you'll see start talking and it will come. Thank you my brothers.

It is pretty self-explanatory really. I am currently trying to break into human services with focus on social work, after years of being an "office clerk" or "data entry clerk" through various companies. One of the opportunities that has just arisen is a volunteer position focusing on literacy, specifically geared toward children whose siblings/parents have been incarcerated. The least amount of time I will have to spend on this is one hour per week (though I will most likely spend more). I would personally recommend to anyone out there trying to better themselves in their own field, or attempting to break into another one, to get involved with their community. Volunteerism can also count toward college credits.

If you have children and spouse (or live-in boy/girl-friend), I would suggest involving them in volunteering as well. No matter how busy we think we are, we can make time for family - even if its just on the weekends.

Talking about pay is kinda taboo in my company, so specifics are hard to come by. From what I've been able to understand however is that annual increases are expected and usually given. Based on my experience and observations:

* Merit pay increases range from 3% (for those who meet expectations and stay out of trouble) to 4% (For those who show initiative and accept leadership) to 5% (for those who consistently go "above and beyond").

* A co-worker who earned a 5% last year routinely works unreported overtime in order to reach her goals. She's slowly showing signs of burnout though.

* The company's Vice Presidents makes merit increase decisions based on the following: how much salary money is left in the budget at end of fiscal year, the employee's written self-evaluation, the supervisor's written evaluation, employee-of-the-month nominations received, and the employee's quantitative productivity statistics.

When it comes to negotiating salary, I keep in mind that almost everything I do day-to-day fits into a goal of doing the best I can on the annual review. To that end, I volunteer for extra committees and offer to help organize special events, I let my supervisor know my personal goals and frequently ask for his feedback, I attend as many trainings as I can, I track all my productivity statistics and write them into my self-evaluation, I do my best to get to know co-workers outside of work, and finally I make use of the company's "open door policy" pass along good ideas or constructive suggestions to corporate leadership. My first year in the company, I was a 3%-er without doing all this. My second year, after using the above tactics, I became a 4%-er.

(yay) My advice to anyone wanting to negotiate their best possible merit increase is to first get realistic expectations. For example, my husband's company grants 5% raises for average work and they get end-of-year bonuses. Second, set goals for yourself and track your own progress so you can let your supervisor know you are interested in personal/professional growth (not just more $). Then at annual review time, you can demonstrate why you deserve the best and your supervisor will be willing to go to bat for you. Third, have an accurate realistic idea of your strengths and weaknesses. Know what you "bring to the table" and what you are doing to improve on. The result will be a more confident you who easily demonstrates your worthiness for your share of the cake. Best of luck!

I work for a drywall company. The company does very well and the people here make it happen without the need for more than an 8 hour day. Bonuses come 2x a year, profit sharing and 401k match annually, time off when needed, including several weeks vacation. The only down side to working here is... be on time. After two years here I was yelled at for my half hour lateness arriving to work for more than 2 years. I was used to being able to have the flexibility in the morning if the job was done. My advice, the job is never done, be on time, and for god's sake... double check everything. The most important objective of communication for an accountant is the accuracy in his or her reporting's. If the reader finds errors in your work, is the same as saying they have found errors in you. 14 Years as a Controller and I still can get it right, but they keep me around... go figure! I am actually blogging this instead of working. Ha!